Second Life competitor Blue Mars drops PC development for Apple's iOS originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 16 Jan 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It has long been a matter of considerable debate among virtual-environment pundits about what constitutes an 'active user'. In some ways, subscription MMOGs have it a lot easier than many other kinds of virtual environment. You can always count paying subscribers, and that's all that matters.

In a general-purpose virtual environment, free-to-play or 'freemium' model, though, counting active users is important. Trends in active users measure the health of your user communities, as well as allowing you to credibly measure your virtual-world's e-peen compared to that of the competition.

Continue reading The Virtual Whirl: Is one hour enough to be considered an active user?

The Virtual Whirl: Is one hour enough to be considered an active user? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 05 Jun 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A change is as good as a holiday, they say. Seriously, I don't actually know anyone who says this other than myself; though I'm assured that there are some folks out there who do.

With that tragically underutilized platitude in mind, then, last week I posed a question to a spread of well-known virtual environment users (at least to those that I felt would actually respond) and collected the responses.

The question put to the respondents was "What's the single thing that the operators/developers could do to make you feel more satisfied with their virtual environment offering; what thing would help an operator keep you as a customer, or that would make some other operator more appealing than the one or ones you already have?"

Continue reading The Virtual Whirl: Vox virtualis

The Virtual Whirl: Vox virtualis originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 08 May 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Blue Mars experiencing slow but steady growth originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 24 Apr 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This week, in The Virtual Whirl, we're going to take a selection of reader questions that we've received in comments and in the virtual mailbag and do our best to offer up some useful answers. Join us as we whirl through the mail. Not surprisingly, the two most frequently asked questions involve the demise of virtual environment, There.com.

Continue reading The Virtual Whirl: Questions from the virtual mailbag

The Virtual Whirl: Questions from the virtual mailbag originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 06 Mar 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Welcome to The Virtual Whirl, a new weekly Massively column covering virtual environments generally. The term 'virtual world' is slowly seeing less use, being supplanted by the more general 'virtual environment', but the world term still has a fair bit of life left in it.

Virtual environments covers a whole lot of ground. From William Crowther's original efforts in 1976 that based a game in a virtual version of the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, virtual environments have been a part of gaming, artificial intelligence and behavioral research, modeling, telemetry and process control and more.

Nowadays we're seeing Second Life, Blue Mars, There.com, IMVU and others trying to find places in non-game contexts, like content-development and prototyping, publishing and performance, entertainment and social, education and business; efforts that are met with varying amounts of success.

Continue reading The Virtual Whirl: Community guide to Virtual Worlds

The Virtual Whirl: Community guide to Virtual Worlds originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 24 Jan 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

As you read last night, the UGC (user-generated-content) virtual environment side of Metaplace is shuttering on New Year's Day, 2010, just a scant couple of weeks away.

"The reason?" says company president Koster. "Well, it just hasn't gotten traction."

Nor should it have at this stage, really. Metaplace only went into open beta in May this year, meaning that it is closing before it really launched. We believe that is several years too soon for traction with its (now canceled) model.

Continue reading Marketplace traction with the UGC model and the closure of Metaplace

Marketplace traction with the UGC model and the closure of Metaplace originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 22 Dec 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Avatar Reality Inc, the operators of Blue Mars, are today announcing limited time "pioneer" pricing for developers, digital entrepreneurs, educators, and businesses for space on the Blue Mars virtual environment platform.

Space on Blue Mars is allocated in "cities". A Blue Mars city can be any size up to 16 kilometres on a side (a total of 256 million square metres). A city is more or less a discrete environment, or pocket "world" (if you prefer the term) with its own custom terrain, interface, rules, controls, items, themes, dominant language, and activities.

Continue reading Blue Mars limited-term pioneer pricing plans announcement

Blue Mars limited-term pioneer pricing plans announcement originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 18 Dec 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Desmond Shang, operator of one of the most popular and cohesive themed communities in Second Life, is extending his community into Blue Mars in just a few days time. Shang's Caledon, popular among aficionados of Victoriana, Steampunk and Gaslight, is opening a sister colony, Caledonia on Blue Mars, with an initial stake of roughly four million square metres.

Caledonia is roughly 30% larger than Caledon, sporting a lot of wilder country, forests, mountains and more. We'll be looking forward to seeing what the content development pipeline will really do. Initial reports are that Caledonia will, even when built out, be considerably less bandwidth intensive on its own than Caledon.

Continue reading Second Life's Caledon expands to Blue Mars

Second Life's Caledon expands to Blue Mars originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Jokay Wollongong, one of the premier promoters and supporters of the educational uses of Second Life, and keeper of the largest single resource for Second Life educators, suffered something of a reversal this week, when Linden Lab decided that that very same resource, sleducation.wikispaces.com, infringed on their SL trademark (which has now only been registered for nine days), and sent Wollongong a takedown notice.

That's something of a surprise considering Linden Lab's ongoing endorsement of the site on the Second Life Education mailing-list. The site, which has been up since late 2006, documents over 100 case studies of educational projects in Second Life, as well as providing key community resources and information for educators who are just getting started with virtual environments.

Continue reading Linden Lab punctures education community with newly registered trademark

Linden Lab punctures education community with newly registered trademark originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 01 Oct 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

As Blue Mars goes into a scaled, open beta, interest has been rising in Avatar Reality's virtual environment. Inevitably, it's compared to Linden Lab's Second Life and - rightly or wrongly - will probably be wearing that comparison for some years to come. Certainly, Second Life users have found the environment intriguing so far.

It seemed only proper that we sit down with Jim Sink, Avatar Reality's CEO and find out a little bit more about Blue Mars.

Continue reading Blue Mars: An interview with Avatar Reality's CEO, Jim Sink

Blue Mars: An interview with Avatar Reality's CEO, Jim Sink originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 10 Sep 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Rumor: Blue Mars to go into open beta on September 2nd?

Rumor: Blue Mars to go into open beta on September 2nd? originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Blue Mars beta and launch dates disclosed

Blue Mars beta and launch dates disclosed originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 17 Nov 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Where is it all going? With an MMOG you already know: Content updates, free and paid expansions, and so forth. A broadening and sometimes also a deepening of the game experience.

Virtual environments tend to be a bit hazier, largely supported by microtransactions they may include game-elements (like Entropia Universe), sci-fantasy settings (like the upcoming Blue Mars), specific celebrity events (Habbo) or merchandise and marketing-focused experiences (Virtual MTV, Barbie Girls Online and more).

In a very real sense the virtual environments industry is largely about focus. Targeting a market, wooing a demographic, and showing them where you are going to take them in the coming days.

Interesting, then, that the world's best-known virtual environment, Linden Lab's Second Life lacks the answers to fundamental questions, the answers to which directly impact every user and organization who participates (or who might participate in future). In fact, hardly anyone is asking those questions. Now isn't that peculiar?

	Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.

Continue reading Where is Second Life going?

Where is Second Life going? originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Blue Mars developer too good at replicating reality originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 24 Mar 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Blue Mars focusing solely on third-party content

Blue Mars focusing solely on third-party content originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 23 Feb 2008 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Gallery: Blue Mars Gallery

Glimpses of the next-gen HD MMOs originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 15 Dec 2007 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Former employees of NCSoft and Phantagram have created a new studio to design a 'third-person massively multiplayer online action game'? And it's powered by CryENGINE 2, the same game engine used in Crysis? Tell me more.

Action MMO powered by Crysis engine? That'll be The Day originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 11 Dec 2007 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Does the name Kazuyuki Hashimoto ring a bell? He was Chief Technology Officer for Square USA for five years, was Vice President of New Technology and Platforms at Electronic Arts for 4 years, and spent seven years as the Senior Vice President of R&D at Square where he worked on the CG segments and cutscenes in the legendary Final Fantasy VII.

Along with Li-Han Chen - whose background includes Project Manager (Sony Online Entertainment), VP of engineering (AtGames Inc), Senior Programmer (Squaresoft), Senior Programmer (Dreamworks) - Hashimoto heads up the Honolulu-based Avatar Reality Inc, and their new MMOG, Blue Mars.

Continue reading Blue Mars - blurring the boundary between MMOG and virtual world

Blue Mars - blurring the boundary between MMOG and virtual world originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 17 Oct 2007 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.